William Baker: ‘Please raise my taxes’

Published
12:00 am EDT, Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Connecticut faces a $2.8-billion budget shortfall and is having trouble finding ways to close it.

At a time when Washington is gripped by calls to cut taxes (and the benefits they pay for), a group of Connecticut residents from the top 5 percent of wage-earners have written to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Legislature with a different idea. They have asked to have their taxes raised.

The letter’s authors came out against spending cuts, such as weakening the Earned Income Tax Credit or cutting health care, child care, education, job training and other services that disproportionately affect low-income children and families. Such short-term remedies, they said, are immoral and end up costing more in the end. And they also observed that raising the sales tax (again) would be regressive and would put a burden on those at the bottom of the wealth scale. We all benefit from the services taxes pay for.

They observed that New York’s top rate for state income tax is 8.82 percent and Massachusetts’ is moving to 9.1 percent, while Connecticut’s is only 6.99 percent. And they observe, “We can afford to pay more and should. We are willing to be part of the solution.” They call for the top two brackets’ marginal rates to be increased by 2 percentage points — a far cry from the 0.1 percent proposed in June.

This is citizenship of the First Order and deserves commendation. And how about the rest of us? As a retiree, I am far from the top bracket, but I, too, could pay more. Taxes are the price we pay for a functioning society. Perhaps it is time for more of us to say to our state Legislators and governor, “Please raise my taxes.”

William Baker of Stamford is a volunteer advocate for Results, a world-wide organization working to create the political will to end poverty.